Tony Snow agreed [Tuesday] night to become White House press secretary after top officials assured him that he would be not just a spokesman but an active participant in administration policy debates ...

Policy debates? In the Bush administration? What did we miss exactly and when?

Don't count on former Fox News host, now Press Secretary Snow, to answer those questions or any others that have any meat to them. Even Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol seemed clued in when he observed of this Fox News-White House revolving door appointment: "It will be good to have a fair and balanced press secretary." More simply, and accurately, Snow is moving from one part of the rightwing infrastructure to another.

David Brock of Media Matters was more pointed in his criticism of this "match made in heaven". In a statement Wednesday, Brock said, "given Snow's long history of making false and misleading claims, his hiring will do little to change the perception that the White House is more interested in stonewalling and deception than in getting the facts out".

Will Snow's arrival bring an end to this White House's pattern of misinformation, mendacity and lack of transparency? Unlikely. Will it salvage the second term of a president described by the eminent historian Sean Wilentz - in the latest issue of Rolling Stone - as the worst in American history. Unlikely.

In short, the Bush administration has found in Tony Snow the perfect leading man for its continuing snow job on the American people.